Not the time for complacency, RCEM says, as slight ED performance improvements overshadowed by further deterioration elsewhere

Slight improvements in some aspects of A&E performance in England must be treated with caution, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine says.

Emergency Department (ED) performance data for February 2026, as well as winter ‘situation report’ figures for the week ending 8 March, were published by NHS England today (12 March).

They showed that more than 150,000 patients waited 12 or more hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged at a major ED in England in February.

That’s one in eight patients – the worst of any February on record – showing that the crisis is far from over.

Dr Ian Higginson, RCEM President, said: “Another month, another record broken. A decade ago, 12 hour waits in A&E were a freak incident. Now, they’re the norm.

“EDs are not supposed to be places people stay the night – they are noisy, bright and and confusing. More than 150,000 of our patients waited more than half a day before moving on.

“This is unacceptable and cannot continue.

“The government and health service leaders have been focusing heavily on diverting patients away from A&E. Meanwhile the real cause of the problem, availability of beds for our patients, has not received the attention it deserves.

“Our recent survey of clinical leads in England showed the strength of feeling among the EM workforce that something must change.”

While the number of patients being discharged, transferred or admitted within four hours at a type-1 (major) ED improved on last year, from 58.4% to 59.4%, more patients than ever before waited more than four hours to be admitted after it was decided they needed a bed.

Dr Higginson added: “This is what happens when hospitals are being encouraged to chase targets for the sake of optics, rather than clinical care. The messaging from the centre has been all about concentrating on the least sick patients, whilst the sickest continue to wait for beds.

“Overcrowding, corridor care and long waits in A&E are not caused by hordes of people with runny noses or hiccoughs who could go elsewhere.

“There’s also a tendency to grasp at straws in the data and describe them as indicators of recovery. This breeds complacency rather than reflecting the crisis that continues.”

Bed occupancy on wards remained far above safe levels, at an average of 94.3% per day. Further beds would have been closed, for cleaning or other reasons, meaning that hospitals were effectively full for the whole month.

Dr Higginson further said: “We need a long-term plan for bringing bed occupancy down. A piece of the puzzle lies in addressing social care, but a whole system approach must be taken to improve patient flow.

“Failing to do this will mean we continue to lose staff to burnout – and worse still, lose the lives of patients who are dying in association with the long waits they experience.”

Today’s figures come after a new survey of Clinical Leads across England undertaken by RCEM about the state of their EDs.

More than half of respondents (51%) said their ED was fairly or very unsane, the vast majority (88%) of said overcrowding was a daily occurrence – and a truly staggering 96% described working in such conditions as “unsustainable” for staff.

Further, 99% of clinical leads told the survey they thought government was not taking the right actions to address the problems.

The stats also showed:

28 instances of ambulances being diverted away from major EDs in the week ending 8 March. This typically happens when a department is completely overwhelmed and there are concerns about long ambulance handovers.

13,967 beds were occupied, on average, each day by patients medically fit to leave (also known as delayed discharge) for that week.

More than 10,000 beds, on average, are needed to bring occupancy down to the safe level of 85%